How Many Days? Bayer Hit with Lawsuit Over One-a-Day Multivitamin Count

A proposed class action just filed in California claims defendants Bayer AG, Bayer Corporation, and Bayer Healthcare, LLC, deceptively misrepresented to consumers the number of days’ worth of vitamins in each bottle of the company’s One-a-Day VitaCraves multivitamins. The 38-page lawsuit specifically alleges Bayer packaged its One-a-Day VitaCrave bottles with only half of the number of days’ worth of vitamins that was represented in advertising and marketing materials, and that consumers must in fact take two VitaCraves per day to hit the daily serving size benchmark.

“In fact, contrary to the prominent representations on the principal display panel on each bottle, consumers must take two One A Day VitaCraves per day in order to receive one daily serving size,” the complaint alleges. “As a consequence, a bottle of One A Day VitaCraves containing 70 gummies provides only 35 days’ worth of vitamins because the recommended serving size is twoOne A Day VitaCraves per day.”

Court records show the California consumer who filed the lawsuit takes issue with the principle display panel on One-a-Day VitaCraves bottles, on which the logo for the product prominently displays the number “1” above the number of gummies contained in each bottle.

Reasonable consumers who bought a bottle of One-a-Day VitaCraves, the case argues, are led to believe they only need to take one gummy per day, and, consequently, “that each bottle contains the number of days’ worth of vitamins equal to the number of gummies in each bottle.” Under this way of thinking, a bottle that contains 70 gummies, for example, therefore contains 70 days’ worth of vitamins, the lawsuit continues. This is allegedly not true, since a bottle containing 70 gummies instead only provides 35 days’ worth of vitamins.

According to the lawsuit, Bayer allegedly does disclose the actual number of days’ worth of vitamins in each One-a-Day VitaCraves bottle, just not where one would expect.

“Bayer only discloses the number of days’ worth of vitamins in each bottle of One A Day VitaCraves vitamins on the supplemental facts panel on the back of the bottle—the part of the label that consumers do not see when viewing One A Day VitaCraves on the shelves of a store,” the lawsuit contends, adding that it should not be the responsibility of a reasonable consumer to look behind “misleading representations” on the front of a product’s label.

Don’t worry. The lawsuit also touches on the alleged financial injury sustained by consumers who didn’t know exactly how much bang for their buck they were getting when purchasing Bayer’s VitaCraves.

“As a consequence of the front-facing principle display panels that misleadingly disclosed to buyers they needed to take just one gummy per day to receive a full serving size, [the plaintiff] and the Class paid, at the very least, precisely twice as much for the product in reliance on the misrepresentations about the quantity of product being purchased,” the case claims.

The lawsuit seeks to cover a proposed national class of consumers across the country who purchased Bayer’s One-a-Day VitaCrave vitamins at any time during the court-appointed limitations period, as well as California- and New York-specific subclasses.